Not Quite Harmony
by Bandicoot Sauce
Summary: Behold, my summary of doom! Those miserable do-gooder Skylanders are back in this series of supremely awesome adventures (and misadventures) for the amusement of foolish human fools everywhere! May contain randomness, implied shipping, cheesy humour (possibly involving actual cheese) and other stuff that I, Kaos, wouldn't touch if you paid me! Enjoy, Poser Master!
1. Just Another Day

**Not Quite Harmony**

Just Another Day

 _Almost two years. That's how long it's been since Skylands faced a serious threat. For a while, everything seemed fine. We contained Kaos, found a new ally in the form of a giant talking brain (I'd honestly rather not look into it) and we sealed the power of Mind Magic away for future generations to discover and (hopefully) use wisely._

 _Even I was starting to believe that things were looking up, and I'm not exactly the sort of person you'd call the eternal optimist. Things have been pretty peaceful for some time now… but we all know for a fact that it won't last._

 _Yep, that's right - Kaos escaped. Again. The Skylanders had been keeping him trapped in a jar after that Brain guy shrunk him down to size, but Kaos and that butler of his found a way to slip away into the wilderness in the dead of night and we've heard neither hide nor hair of him since. It's only a matter of time before he tries something stupid that puts us all in danger, though._

 _Sigh. Yes, I actually just wrote my sigh into my notes. A sigh really is the only way to sum up what's been going through my mind lately. I mean, the thought of asking HIM what we should do next, like he'd actually have an answer that didn't involve how 'handsome' and 'irresistible' he thinks he is…_

 _Sigh. And yet, I don't know where else to turn. For as annoying as he is, he's got a good heart - a heart of gold, even - and I know that he'll always be willing to lend an ear to me. Or a scarf. He loaned me his scarf on that cold winter evening a few months back, and it was actually pretty warm. I actually fell asleep wearing it, and when I woke up to find that I still had it on me, I could feel myself blushing like crazy, and I honestly have no idea why._

 _Well, okay, maybe that last part is not entirely true, but come on - me and HIM? You've GOT to be joking! I mean, he's… Well, I won't deny he has his good points, but…_

 _I feel like I could just write the word 'sigh' over and over again and that would sum up my opinion of him nicely. An exasperated sigh. A weary sigh. A lonely sigh. A dreamy sigh…_

 _Did I seriously just write that? Hoo, boy… If anyone were to actually read this thing, I'd never live it down._

 _Like I said before, I just don't know what to do._

 _About whatever the future holds for Skylands…_

 _And about HIM…_

"Hey, Cali, are you in there?" Flynn asked, suddenly appearing at the study's doorway.

"Oh!" Cali exclaimed in alarm, quickly snatching up a small pile of textbooks that had been resting nearby and placing them on top of her diary, concealing it from view. "Y-Yeah, I'm in here. Just checking some… stuff. Some old stuff," she babbled nervously, turning to face her fellow Mabu with an uneasy smile. "You never know when you might learn something from one of these old books, y'know?"

"Well, actually, I _wouldn't_ know, if I'm being honest," Flynn admitted, reaching up to straighten the pilot goggles that rested atop his head. "I've always felt that there's nothing a book can teach you that you can't figure out just by getting out there and trying stuff. It's all about getting outside your comfort zone, Cali," Flynn declared casually, right before a butterfly came flying over from seemingly out of nowhere to perch on the man's nose. Flynn let out a shrill shriek of panic, proceeding to flail his arms about wildly until the harmless little insect flew away without a sound. The Mabu pilot then chuckled awkwardly, realising that he'd just made a fool of himself. "Heh. Of course, that also means being prepared for surprises, and even the greatest pilot in all of Skylands can be caught off guard every once in a while."

Cali rolled her eyes, but couldn't help smiling knowingly. "So, what did you need to find me for, Flynn?" she asked.

"Oh, that! Yeah, Hugo was shouting something about some kind of magical detergent before. At least, I _think_ that's what he was trying to get across. Poor guy was so worked up that I could barely make heads or tails of what he was saying."

"A magical _disturbance_ , not detergent, ya big clod!" a distinctly Scottish accent sounded out from behind Flynn. The Mabu pilot turned to see Avril, Captain of the Boney Island Frost Elves, standing there, an exasperated look on her blue visage, her steel battle helmet ever-present. "Honestly! I thought pilots such as yerself were supposed tuh be on the ball!"

"A magical disturbance?" Cali repeated, getting up out of her swivel chair, concern on her face.

"Aye. Hugo's been monitorin' it on one o' Master Eon's old telescopes. Says the stars 'ave been alignin' erratically as of late, goin' in an' out o' all sorts o' unusual formations. Now he's sayin' that lightnin' has been added tuh the mix. Purple lightnin' that's about as natural as Flynn's patented enchilada recipe."

"Hey, that recipe was handed down from my mother!" Flynn stated before adding, "I just wanted to see if it tasted better with four kinds of spicy peppers added to the mix. You don't know if you don't try."

"Those were _magical_ spicy peppers, Flynn! It was lucky I didn't end up shootin' flames out o' my-"

"Never mind!" Cali yelped hurriedly, not wanting to hear the specifics of Avril's indigestion. "I'm going to check on Hugo!"

Racing out of the study that had once been used by Kaos during one of his many shaky - and of course temporary - alliances with the Skylanders, Cali made her way along the Academy's balcony, soon finding the teleportation pad and leaping onto it without a moment's hesitation, appearing instantaneously in the courtyard, at the edge of which Hugo stood beside a colossal telescope that was pointed diagonally upwards. The knowledgeable Mabu wasn't even looking through the telescope. He was standing with his back to Cali, completely rigid, his fur bristling underneath his green jacket.

"Hugo, what's going… on?" Cali managed to say, becoming lost for words as she arrived at her friend's side, following his wide-eyed, bespectacled gaze.

Hugo was staring at a not-too-distant stretch of sky.

A stretch of sky that was currently filled with ominous clouds.

Clouds that crackled with purple lightning.

Unnatural purple lightning, just as Avril had said.

And when Cali finally brought herself to speak, all she could say was:

"We've gotta get the Skylanders!" With that, she and Hugo took off towards the Academy at a run.

* * *

"What should we do today? We could go swimming, we could go to the lava pits… or we could go fishing!" Spyro The Dragon suggested to his fellow Skylander, Gill Grunt, as the two sat on a rocky outcrop on the edge of one of Skylands' many floating islands, enjoying the view. "Nah, that'd be kind of weird, seeing as you're a fish. Hey, anyone else getting a sense of deja vu?"

"It's just a new cologne I'm trying out!" Deja Vu protested in annoyance as the time mage stepped out from behind Spyro and Gill. "It's not _that_ bad!"

"That's not what I meant _at all_ ," Spyro insisted as his fellow Magic Skylander walked away in a huff. The dragon turned back to the Water Skylander who sat beside him, noticing that the Gillman was squinting up at the wide blue yonder.

"Hmm. Is it me or do those clouds look-?" he began.

"Super evil?" Spyro guessed, cutting in.

"I was going to say 'really freaky', but sure, let's go with your one," Gill said with a nod as he and Spyro eyed the clouds that crackled with sinister magical energy. In fact, several Skylanders all across the way began to sit up and take notice...

* * *

Splat looked up from painting a _very_ abstract self-portrait as her easel became cast in shadow by the darkening sky.

"Well, _there's_ a blemish on nature's canvas if I ever saw one," the faun muttered, twirling her double-ended magic paintbrush in one hand. In truth, no one was sure if Splat's appendages were indeed 'hands' and not hooves concealed by magical gloves that behaved like opposable digits. Either way, the SuperCharger Skylander was none too pleased about having her calming outdoor activity interrupted by signs of trouble.

* * *

Tree Rex and Crusher sat hunched over a small table in a small tavern that was, in retrospect, a little too small for the two Giants as they played their game of Skystones. They glanced up at the small TV screen hanging over the small bar where the small Greeble barkeep was polishing a small glass. The TV showed live footage of the peculiar weather phenomenon happening outside.

"Looks like something _tree-mendous_ is going down out there," the Life Giant mused.

"Think we should head out and try to _crush_ the rising fear?" the Earth Giant enquired.

"That, and try to come up with some better puns," Tree Rex declared as he got to his feet, upending the table as he did so, scattering empty flagons and Skystones cards all over the floor.

* * *

Roller Brawl sat with her arms wrapped around her knees, holding her legs close to her chest. She seemed to be balancing precariously on her rear, looking like she might fall over onto her side at any moment.

This is lame," the Undead Skylander exclaimed aloud as she glanced over at Stealth Elf, who sat beside her on the moonlit sandy beach. "Not to mention painful. You sure this is supposed to be good for me?"

"Yoga makes for an able body, which, in turn, makes for an able mind," Stealth Elf responded in her soft voice.

"Whatevs," Roller Brawl muttered, abandoning the new-age routine she had agreed to try for the sake of her fellow Skylander and instead proceeding to stretch out on the sand, resting her arms, which were decked out with protective pads and black roller derby armour, behind her helmeted head. She then sat up suddenly, noticing an odd occurrence in the sky. "Whoa, cool! Natural light show!" she exclaimed, grinning at the sight of the dark clouds and purple lightning, her vampire fangs showing.

Stealth Elf followed the derby champ's gaze, the elf's expression growing solemn underneath her leather mouth guard. "Yeah, I'm not so sure that's natural," she said.

* * *

Pop Fizz was walking along a winding path, occasionally sipping at one of his potions (with 'occasionally' being roughly every three seconds) when the rumble of thunder caught his attention and he caught sight of the lightning clouds. He glanced down at the beaker in his clawed hand.

"That's it - I'm off this stuff for life!" he exclaimed, throwing the beaker over his shoulder. It exploded as it hit a wild mushroom, causing the fungi to sprout legs and run off into the distance. Pop Fizz then chuckled. "Yeah, like _that's_ gonna happen," he declared, immediately pulling another potion out of his satchel and taking a big gulp, turning into his crazed berserker form and starting to run in the direction of the clouds.

* * *

"The clouds! What'd I tell you? I was right about THE CLOUDS!" Ermit the hermit yelled wildly as several Skylanders ran, flew, rode or burrowed past him, but no one was paying the old-timer any mind. The heroes all met up on an island not far from the lightning clouds, staring at them apprehensively.

"What d'you think it means?" Spyro asked. "Kaos? The Darkness returning?" The dragon then smirked. "Broccoli Guy on too much sugar?"

Stealth Elf stared at him.

"What? I'm just making a joke to lighten the mood," Spyro assured her.

"Well, all joking aside, I think we're going to need a well thought-out plan if we're going to-"

"Less talk, more walk! I say we roll with it!" Roller Brawl cried brashly, putting two fingers in her mouth and giving a shrill whistle. A yellow vortex then opened right beside her, prompting several of her fellow Skylanders to hurriedly scramble out of the way as a powerful-looking off-road buggy made of what looked worryingly like dragon bones rocketed out of the rift between dimensions, its horn honking to encourage its driver to board it, which Roller Brawl did with gusto, and as soon as her gloved hands touched the steering wheel, her black derby gear turned ivory white to match the bone frame of the buggy. It looked like she was wearing a skeleton over her clothes while sitting within another, much larger skeleton on wheels. The Undead Skylander revved the motor and she took off with a cry of, "AW, YEAH!"

"Are you serious right now?!" Jet-Vac exclaimed aloud as he watched Roller Brawl's Tomb Buggy speed straight up a small slope at the edge of the island, using it as a ramp to propel herself over to the next island and right into the midst of the unnatural tempest.

"I'll go make sure she's alright!" Spyro shouted as he took flight.

"No, wait!" Jet-Vac and Stealth Elf called after him in unison, but the headstrong dragon was already gone.

* * *

Purple lightning crackled with explosive fury, flashing from one dark cloud to the next like a sinister chain of dangerous, destructive energy.

And Roller Brawl was caught right in the middle of it.

The Undead Skylander let out a low whistle, impressed by the semi-natural spectacle taking place all around her. "Quite a storm," she mused, genuine humbled awe on her face for a moment. Then she grinned madly from ear to ear, her fangs clearly visible. "Now let's crank it up to eleven!"

Roller Brawl pulled a mix tape out of the Tomb Buggy's glove compartment and inserted it into the onboard sound system. Heavy metal music began to blare at full volume, Roller Brawl miming playing a guitar in time with the song. Lightning crackled right next to the Tomb Buggy, shaking the ground of the island surrounded by storm clouds. Roller Brawl jolted in alarm, her magically glowing eyes wide with terror for a split second. Then she just laughed.

"Oh, you got me, lightning storm! You totally got me!" she exclaimed aloud with misplaced glee.

"And _you're_ totally _nuts!"_ Spyro declared as he landed in the passenger seat right beside the derby vampire, causing her to shriek, startled by the dragon's sudden intrusion on her escapade.

"Next time, _warn_ a girl before you just drop in like that! I could've been shaving my legs for all you knew!" Roller Brawl exclaimed indignantly.

Spyro stared at her. "If you were shaving your legs in the car, you'd need a psychiatrist worse than you already do!" he shouted over the noise of both the lightning and the Tomb Buggy's music player. "Would you turn that thing off?! I can barely hear myself think!"

"What?" Roller Brawl responded loudly. "I can't hear you! I'll have to turn this thing off!" she said as she reached forward and switched off the sound system.

"That's exactly what I…! Oh, forget it," Spyro declared, rolling his crimson eyes. "Come on, we've gotta get out of here!"

"Why?"

Spyro's eye twitched. "Why, she says. Because we'll be made extra crispy by this lightning if we don't! _That's_ why, Roller Brawl!"

"I've told you before, call me Roll! It's short and slick, like me!"

"Oh, you're _something_ alright," the purple dragon muttered as Roll continued to steer them through the storm. "Why did you even come in here, anyway?"

"Reconnaissance! Duh!" Roll exclaimed as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "You don't think I'd just drive into the eye of a storm all willy-nilly, do ya?"

Spyro blinked. "Is… Is that a trick question?" he asked.

Roll gave an exasperated groan, rolling her eyes. "Boys," she muttered irritably before suddenly slamming her foot - skate and all - on the brake pedal, jerking the Tomb Buggy to a sudden halt. "Do you _see_ that?"

Spyro followed the Undead Skylander's gaze. There, at the very centre of the shrouded island, at the very eye of the supernatural storm, was an unmoving figure sprawled face-down on the ground. "Someone's hurt!" the dragon cried, immediately taking flight and gliding over to the unconscious figure, a bolt of purple lightning narrowly missing the Magic Skylander as he landed beside the body. Roll soon skated up to join him and helped the purple dragon turn the downed figure, whose head was concealed by the hood of the green jacket he wore, onto his back, the hood falling away to reveal the figure's face.

A human face.

Spyro and Roll glanced at each other.

"Dibs on his blood if we can't find a pulse!" the derby vampire declared eagerly.

Spyro face-palmed.

* * *

"And you say you found him in the middle of that atmospheric anomaly?" Jet-Vac asked later as the Skylanders stood around a metal table in the Academy's basement, which doubled as a workshop, albeit one filled with some of the quirkiest inventions imaginable. The human boy lay stretched out on the table, still out cold. He was a young teen with messy blonde hair and three ginger freckles on each cheek. His hooded green jacket was unzipped, revealing a white undershirt. His jeans were a dark grey, almost black. Red and white sneakers adorned his feet, the white laces on the right shoe presently untied.

"Nah, I think they found him in the storm, actually," Eruptor said cluelessly, earning him a look from the Sky Baron. "What?"

 _"I'll_ tell you what!" Mags exclaimed, the undead inventor suddenly pushing past the lava monster with a magnifying glass in hand, her signature stovepipe hat lopsided atop her purple hair. She gazed intently at the human boy's freckles through the magnifying glass, making her left eye appear huge. "This here youngster is lucky to be alive! Wanderin' around in a storm like that... Why, he must be kookier than a cuckoo clock in a bologna blizzard!"

"Look who's accusing who of being a kook," Roller Brawl muttered to Pop Fizz, who was in the middle of taking a sip of potion when his fellow Skylander spoke. He ended up slopping the fizzy substance all down his front as he struggled not to laugh out loud.

"Perhaps he wasn't out there of his own volition?" Cali suggested. "I wouldn't put it past the average crew of Sky Pirates to cast one of their prisoners - or even one of their own crew members - over the side into a raging tempest just for kicks."

"Well, if this kid's a Sky Pirate, he sure doesn't look the part," Spyro mused. "He's far too clean, for one thing. Just look at that hair."

"I reckon you've got the tail right on the platypus there, Spyro," Mags said, nodding in agreement as she coiled a lock of the boy's blonde hair around her finger. "Look at that. Not even a _trace_ o' dandruff or breakage. Probably more shampoo than hair, honestly."

The boy moaned suddenly, startling Mags into stepping back. "No, Mom, I don't wanna go to school today," the boy mumbled cluelessly, slowly opening his eyes, revealing the right to be blue and the left to be gold.

"Well, _there's_ something you don't see every day," Mags murmured, holding up her magnifying glass again to better examine the boy's eyes, only for him to immediately reach up and rub them, clearing his hazy vision.

"Huh? _Whuh?!"_ the boy exclaimed, sitting bolt upright and gazing around in wide-eyed bewilderment at the assortment of non-human beings around him. Dragons, elves, gremlins… He rubbed his eyes again. He then pinched his wrist. He then slapped himself in the face. Then he started to hyperventilate. Then-

"Uh-oh," Spyro said, realising what was about to happen. Sure enough, the boy let out a panicked scream, quickly scrambling off the metal table and backing up against the wall, holding up his left arm in a vain attempt to shield himself from any potential attack.

"Gee, what's _his_ problem?" Pop Fizz exclaimed, turning into his berserker form as he spoke, which, of course, did nothing to quell the young human's panic. "You'd think he'd never seen a group of ordinary folk like us before!" he went on in the more gruff voice of his transformed state.

"Ordinary. You. Right. You keep telling yourself that," Roll said, shaking her head knowingly.

"You're not helping, Roller Brawl," Stealth Elf told her in a warning tone.

"Alright, we're clearly giving the poor chap a bad first impression of us," Jet-Vac stated. "Why don't we all just take a deep breath, let it out slowly, and introduce ourselves properly?"

"Yes, a capital idea, Jet-Vac, my man," Professor Brain said as he filed into the room at that very moment, the last of the Ancients floating over to join the rest of the group. "As the smartest and most powerful brain in the known universe, I wholeheartedly concur with the notion of-"

The young human groaned loudly before sinking to the floor in a dead faint, the sight of a giant talking brain with one huge eyeball and long, squid-like tentacles being more than his conscious mind was willing to try and process.

"Oh. My bad," the Brain said awkwardly. "Well, that's why we have smelling salts, yes? I'll just… I'll go upstairs and get some of those, shall I?" he went on meekly, noticing the looks he was getting from the Skylanders and their associates. "Yeah. I'll, um… I'll go do that in a nice, quiet fashion."


	2. Sneakers And Skates

Sneakers And Skates

"No."

 _Thud._

"No."

 _Thud._

"No!"

 _Thud._

"No!"

 _Thud._

"NO! ARGH!"

Instead of throwing the book he was holding onto the floor to join the many others that littered the carpet, Kaos pegged the tome across the room as hard as he could, narrowly avoiding hitting Glumshanks, who was searching the bookshelf on the far side of the room. The lanky troll gasped, startled, as the book of magic slammed into the assortment of books to his immediate right. "That was a close one," the long-suffering butler muttered, shaking his head from his position on the ladder leaning against the bookcase.

"GLUMSHANKS!" Kaos shouted, the sudden yell causing Glumshanks to finally lose his balance and fall from the ladder's rungs, landing hard on his rear between _The Complete Notes of Professor P. Grungally_ and _Skystones: A Cultural Phenomenon._ The troll got to his feet, rubbing his now aching bottom and biting back the irritated murmur that he knew he'd never actually find the guts to say.

"Yes, Lord Kaos?" he asked with the well-practiced forced calm he was used to using when addressing his Master.

"Did you find anything?"

"Not yet, sir."

"Well, keep looking!" Kaos snapped before turning back to his own stack of books that rested on the small wooden table in front of him. "Somewhere in this stupid library, there has to be a spell book that will offer a source of magic worthy of my incomprehensible genius!"

"Sir, we've looked through more than three thousand books in the last few days," Glumshanks reminded him, pulling a book from the shelf he was in front of, seeing the title and immediately placing it back on the shelf. He doubted that Kaos would appreciate a book titled _Kaos: Skylands' Favourite Laughingstock_ at the moment, if ever. "We haven't eaten or slept in the last twenty-four hours! Well, _I_ haven't, anyway," the troll finished in a quiet mutter, remembering spending the best part of three hours trapped under a pile of books he had accidentally pulled down on top of himself while Kaos had slept at the nearby desk, drooling onto the polished wood, oblivious to the suffering of his servant. Typically enough, Kaos had jerked awake mere moments after Glumshanks had managed to finally pull himself out from underneath the pile, the self-absorbed villain not even noticing the troll's swollen eye from where the corner of a falling book had struck it.

"I don't care, fool!" Kaos snapped, but he was actually lying to himself in this regard. Glumshanks knew that if he hadn't been bringing his Master tea and snacks at regular intervals, the bald little man would _really_ get cranky, and Kaos was more than cranky enough at the best of times. "I don't care if it takes another _hundred thousand_ days, we're not leaving this library until I find a new power source! I don't want to show my face to those miserable Skylanders unless I can immediately wipe the smirks off _their_ faces with an energy blast or a lightning bolt or a fireball or… or _something_ like that!" he concluded, his angry expression fading to be replaced by a depressed one as he spoke. He slumped forward onto the table and let out a heavy sigh, resting his chin on his palms.

"Um, sir?" Glumshanks said, the sudden shift in his Master's mood not escaping the butler's notice.

Kaos sighed again. "Look at me, Glumshanks," he said gloomily. "Once the greatest dark Portal Master of my generation, and here I am, hiding out in some out-of-the-way book emporium, sipping lukewarm, flavourless tea and rummaging through dusty old paperbacks, looking for the means to be supremely awesome again."

"Again?" Glumshanks asked, raising an eyebrow. "Are you not still?"

"Of course, fool! I have _always_ been awesome, but…" Kaos bit his lip. "Now I'm just that. Awesome. Not supremely awesome."

Glumshanks was quiet. He honestly didn't know what to say in response to that. He glanced at the empty teacup on the edge of the desk. "I'll, uh, go get you a fresh cup of tea, shall I, sir?"

"Fine, fine, whatever," Kaos said bitterly, waving the butler away without looking up from the book that had just caught his attention. "Bring back some cookies while you're at it. Chocolate chip, not that oatmeal raisin trash."

"Well, he can't be _that_ miserable if he's still got the enthusiasm to boss me around," Glumshanks muttered to himself once he was out of earshot.

Kaos slowly turned the rune-filled pages of the big book that rested before him on the table, scanning each one carefully with his beady, power-hungry eyes. A particular rune, one that took up an entire page, caught his attention. "Hmm…" he mused quietly, stroking his chin. He reached out and traced the rune with his finger…

…And then the book suddenly snapped shut on Kaos' hand, a high-pitched cackling ringing out as, with a low whooshing sound, a small phantom rose out of the book, the prankster ghost laughing mockingly at Kaos. Kaos roared out his frustrations, snatching up the book and hurling it at the ghost, only for the tome to pass right through the spectral troublemaker, bouncing off the nearby wall and coming back to hit Kaos square in the forehead, leaving a bruise in its wake.

"RRRRAAAARGH! GLUMSHANKS!"

* * *

Jet-Vac glanced around the Academy's courtyard, seeing several of the younger Skylanders going about their training, Senseis such as King Pen and Tri Tip supervising. The Sky Baron bit back a sigh. Things had been tough for the Academy since some of the Senseis had turned their back on the Skylander way, returning to their old ways as wanted villains. The Golden Queen, the Doom Raiders and that strange little scientist fellow with the big yellow head… They had all taken a leaf out of Kaos' book and fled the Academy as soon as they had found an opening to do so.

Of course, it was not the renegade Senseis that Jet-Vac was keeping an eye out for right now. Instead, he was searching the courtyard for a certain Skylander of his own rank, one whom he did not always see eye to eye with, but was nonetheless a worthy ally and equal.

"Ah, here we go," the Air Skylander said brightly when he noticed the very individual he sought trudging up the path to meet him, bulky wrench in hand, blue goggles pulled down over her eyes, shoulder-length deep red hair billowing slightly in the morning wind.

"Jet-Vac," Sprocket greeted politely, the Goldling's gold complexion dotted with drops of motor oil, her high-tech blue and gold body armour, which she wore over her purple top and brown mechanic jeans, polished to a gleam.

"Sprocket," Jet-Vac responded in kind. "I hear that you've been making adjustments to the Rift Engines again. I trust that they're all still starting without a wrench- Er, hitch?" he corrected himself.

"Well, I might have to run extensive diagnostics on Roller Brawl's Tomb Buggy again, but then… Well, the sky is blue and water is wet, if you catch my drift," the Tech Skylander said, raising an eyebrow knowingly at her fellow Skylander.

"Quite," Jet-Vac exclaimed, chuckling. "I've been meaning to talk to that vampire about her reckless ways, now that you mention it. Anyway, what I wanted to talk to _you_ about is the young lad we picked up almost a week ago. How's he coping?"

"Yeah, he's doing fine. I mean, he's obviously still adjusting. It's not every day a time-space anomaly drags you out of your world and into a new one, but I think he's starting to pull himself together, at least based on what Mags told me earlier. She said she'd get him to help her with some errands today and pay him a small wage for his troubles."

"Ah, a capital idea, yes. In times of trouble, sometimes the best thing one can do is to keep busy," Jet-Vac said with a nod of understanding, adjusting the weight of his signature aerial backpack as he stood there, taking hold of his vacuum gun in his right taloned appendage. "Speaking of which, I should probably get some training in while I'm out here in the fresh air. Care to join me in a friendly sparring match?"

"Sorry, but I've still got a few things to check off my 'Maintenance and Repairs' list, with that metaphorical list being inside my head," Sprocket stated. "Although, I _am_ working on a new proximity mine between projects. Maybe you could help me test it some time? In an environment with all the proper safety protocols in effect, of course. I'm not gonna try and blow you to bits, if that's how I made it sound," she said, offering an awkward chuckle.

A knowing smirk appeared on the Sky Baron's beak. "I'm sure I can find a leisure moment in the not-too-distant future," he said cheerfully. "Here's hoping the project goes off-"

"Without a wrench?" Sprocket finished for him, once again raising her eyebrows slyly.

"You're never going to let me forget about that now, are you?" Jet-Vac asked. They both laughed.

* * *

"Alright, I reckon you've done a right darn good bit o' work today, Joshua," Mags told the young human as she led him up to the Academy's main hall. "Why don't you take the rest o' the day off? Oh, that reminds me," the undead inventor went on, pulling out a small sack of coins. "When Mags makes a promise to repay someone for their help, she don't go back on that promise. No, siree bob!"

"Thanks, Miss Mags, and call me Josh. I'm cool with the shorter version," the boy, Josh, said, accepting the little coin sack into his palm. "I'll, uh, be around if you need anymore help. I mean, it's not like I have anywhere else to go…" he finished in a gloomy mutter.

"Now, now, let's have none o' that there negativity," Mags said to him, placing a hand under the boy's chin and gently lifting his head up. "I know this is all new to you, but with new experiences come new opportunities. Remember that, Josh, and you'll feel right at home in Skylands before you know it. Now, I gotta skedaddle, so if you need a reminder o' where anything is, ask one o' the Professors. I know some o' them can seem a little imposing, but they don't bite. Mostly."

"Mostly?"

"Yeah, I knew you'd quote me on that," Mags said with a knowing smile, playfully ruffling the boy's hair. "Don't forget that the spare bed in the Skylanders' dormitory is available for as long as you need it. The _boys'_ dormitory, I probably should stress. Can't risk havin' any hanky panky on Academy property. Catch ya later, percolator!" With that, the quirky but well-meaning woman was hurrying away, the arm that held the gear staff swinging in motion with her movements.

Josh exhaled deeply, sliding his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Wow, this coin bag is heavy," he murmured, patting his right pocket. "Wonder if I can exchange it for some sort of credit…" He then slapped a hand to his forehead. "Oh, what am I saying? It's a textbook fantasy world populated by dragons, elves and fairies! They probably don't even have _phones_ here!"

The fourteen year-old ran a hand through his messy blonde hair as he walked, trying to gather his thoughts as he stepped out into the Academy's courtyard. Most of the Skylanders that had been on the premises had headed back to class or out on patrols, depending on their rank. Josh decided to savour the peace and quiet. He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath in through the nose and letting it out through the mouth.

"Well, Joshua Palmer Light, you're in a world where magic is real, humans are apparently rare and you've only got a handful of pocket change to your name. Skylands is yours for the taking!" he joked cynically. "Ah, maybe Miss Mags was right. I can't just stand around moping." He zipped up his green jacket, pulled his hood up over his head, glanced down to make sure that his shoes were tied and then took a bold stride forward…

…Only to stumble over the Academy's front step and sprawl face-down on the grass. He lifted his head, spitting out a mouthful of the lawn's green strands.

"Glad no girls were around to see that," he said as he got to his feet, dusting himself off. He froze when he heard the unmistakable sound of a girl laughing behind him. He turned to see Roller Brawl standing at the Academy's entrance, balanced precariously on one of her signature sawblade skates, her pale hands, metal claws and all, on her hips as she smirked at him, her vampire fangs showing.

"Have a nice trip, Sneakers?" Roll asked teasingly, the unimaginative nickname referring, of course, to Josh's shoes. "Shall I see you next… _fall_ , perhaps? Ha, ha, ha!"

"Hilarious," Josh said, tossing his hood back as he turned to look at her. "At least I'm not wearing _my_ trip hazard on my feet all day."

"Trip hazard? Please. Watch and learn," Roll said before suddenly leaping through the air, twirling multiple times and landing smartly on her wheels before the young human. "Thank you. Hold your applause," she said smugly.

"Whoa. Not bad… for a girl," Josh said cheekily.

"Watch it, Sneakers. I don't wear these claws just for the fashion statement," Roll said warningly, flexing her claws threateningly. Josh swallowed, and she laughed at the look on his face. "Nah, I wouldn't use these bad boys on you. I might dirty them with your blood."

Josh gave a weak chuckle at that display of dark humour. "Roller Brawl, right?" he guessed.

"Call me Roll. Keep it short and sweet, I always say," Roll declared, looking at her fingers casually.

"I'll go along with that. Josh Light," the boy said, introducing himself. He held out his hand. Roll stared at it before looking him in the eye, raising an eyebrow. "Oh, right! Claws," Josh realised, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"Oh, I'll shake your hand if you want, but you'll have to supply your own band-aids," Roll told him, smirking again. "I'm going for a snack at the cafeteria. You coming?"

"Uh, sure," Josh said, a little surprised at the offer. "I mean… Yeah."

Roll chuckled. "So uncertain," she mused, shaking her head knowingly. "You ever hear of Batterson?"

"Um, no. Is he your boyfriend?"

Roll utterly guffawed at that, leaning against the nearby statue of Eon to support herself, doubled over with mirth.

"He's a _pie maker_ , you dork! His pastries are legendary amongst the undead! And the living don't seem to mind them, either. They serve them in the Academy's cafeteria one day a week, and today is that day!"

"Oh, okay," Josh said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the coin sack. "Tell you what - I'll buy this time. I need to familiarise myself with this world's money, anyway."

Roll skated over and put a hand on Josh's shoulder. "You know what, Sneakers? I think you and I are gonna get along _juuuuuust fine_."

Josh tilted his head. "Should I be scared right now?" he asked half-jokingly.

Roll gave an open-mouthed smile that showcased her gleaming white, razor sharp fangs. "You tell me, Joshy-boy. You tell me."


	3. No Bones About It

No Bones About It

"Ugh! Where _is_ he?"

Count Moneybone paced back and forth in the main hall of his Clockwork Castle, the skeleton swishing his dark purple cape as he went. The undead tycoon was growing anxious. Finally, the colossal double doors on one side of the room swung open slowly and dramatically, bathing the gloomy hall in bright light. Moneybone shielded his eyes with one gloved bony hand as he squinted at the figure casting a shadow in the doorway.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," the figure said, his head noticeably big. Moneybone could hear the mocking smile in the newcomer's voice.

"You're late, scientist," the skeleton declared, leaning on the ornate staff he had been holding, the tip adorned with a polished ancient skull.

"And for good reason," the man said as he began to stride forward, the great doors swinging shut behind him. Once the gloom had settled in once again, candles all along the walls magically lit up, casting the room in a soft, decidedly macabre glow, revealing the scientist's yellow complexion, his forehead adorned with a metallic capital 'N'. He was dressed in a white labcoat, red boots and yellow gloves. He had a coarse black beard and minimal hair on the sides of his big head. He grinned sinisterly at Moneybone. "Your so-called Clockwork Powersuit was of inferior design, and required some prolonged testing to properly identify the bulk of its flaws."

"It is not inferior!" Moneybone protested. "It was made with the best designs my money could afford, and there is precious little that my vast, vast fortune - accumulated over centuries through lying, cheating, stealing and extorting - cannot afford."

The scientist folded his arms. "In any case, I took the liberty of making some much-needed modifications based on my personal experience with advanced robotics. The inferior model's power cells, while generating a formidable amount of energy, were unstable to the point that they threatened to damage the time-space continuum, and that's something even _I_ have learned not to tamper with, albeit the hard way," he concluded, biting his lip as he said those last four words, as though he were struggling with an uncomfortable memory.

"I will not pay for these 'modifications' until I see the benefits they are meant to reap firsthand," Moneybone stated firmly. "I may be immensely wealthy, but I am no fool, Cortex."

"That's _Doctor_ Cortex to you, skeleton. Dr. Neo Cortex! Not even the richest of the rich can push _this_ evil scientist around," Cortex stated, only to jump and let out a rather feminine shriek of alarm when a wooden mask of tribal proportions appeared out of thin air beside him. The mask bore ivory white bones amidst its other decorations, as well as an angry expression.

"Cortex! Must you continue to fraternise with this sharply-dressed buffoon?" the mask demanded irritably. "I have a universe awaiting my my unquestioned dominance and we are wasting time here!"

"Great Uka Uka, _please_ ," Cortex exclaimed. "I assure you that this is all part of my… _our_ plan," he corrected himself, glancing at Moneybone. "If you'll excuse me, _Count_ Moneybone, I have to go and check on a few things, but rest assured that I will show you the ropes with my… _your_ new and improved Powersuit at my earliest convenience."

"Very good. Carry on. You were starting to bore me, anyway," Moneybone said, casually waving the scientist away as he turned to face the gigantic rotary gears that lined the castle's walls. "All that techno-babble just drains the afterlife right out of me, you know."

With a low growl, Cortex stepped outside, closing the huge doors behind him. As soon as he was out of earshot of Moneybone, he and his mask cohort chuckled wickedly.

"That pompous billionaire will be smiling on the other side of his face by the time our plan is complete," the scientist said with a sinister grin, clasping his hands together. "He has _no idea_ that we're _using_ him!"

"That irritating scientist will be smiling on the other side of his face by the time my plan is complete," Moneybone said to himself as he made his way out of the main hall and into one of the castle's many corridors. "He has _no idea_ that I'm _using_ him!" The skeleton cackled maniacally. "And as for that piece of driftwood that hangs around him like a bad smell… Well, I think the 'Great' Uka Uka will make for a _marvellous_ garment at my annual masquerade ball!" On that note, the undead tycoon did a jaunty little jig as he disappeared into the depths of his castle, his crazed laughter echoing through the halls.

* * *

"Oh, my. This is terrible," Hugo mused as he stood in the Academy's library, holding the sheet of parchment that had been printed by the vintage-looking machine Mags had set up to fax messages between the library and the basement/workshop. "These readings are…" Trailing off, the timid Mabu raced out of the library, hurrying through the hallways and skidding to a halt in the main entrance, almost colliding with Flynn and Cali, who had been coming the other way.

"Hugo, what's the matter?" Cali asked, recognising the almost ever-present look of worry on Hugo's face.

"Oh, good, you're here!" Hugo said breathlessly, reaching up to straighten his glasses before directing the attention of his fellow Mabu to the parchment he held. "I just got this note from Mags. It seems that that strange storm the other day was no accident. Mags sent Sprocket out to take some readings of the area earlier today and… Well, look at these results!" he said, pushing the parchment into Cali's clawed hand.

"'Ion Positive'? 'Crisis Levels'?" Cali read aloud, her ears drooping as her apprehension grew. "Hugo, this is terrible!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, that's exactly what _I_ said when I first saw it!" Hugo said, nodding in agreement. "If that storm was indeed an ionic disturbance, it can't have been natural! Not in _this_ part of Skylands! The climate wouldn't allow for it!"

"According to Mags' notes, Sprocket interviewed a couple of witnesses who claim that they saw some sort of robotic flying contraption leaving the area just as the ionic disturbance occurred!" Cali elaborated. "I'll bet that it was a robot powered by ionic power cells, which would've produced residual energy of a nature that was-!

"Let me guess - ionic?" Flynn cut in, starting to get annoyed at how he was being left out of the conversation. "What even _is_ ion, anyway?"

"It's a form of electrical energy, Flynn, and a very unstable one," Cali told him. "With this kind of energy output, it could-"

"-Tear unstable rifts in the time-space continuum!" Hugo finished for her. "I guess that explains Joshua. He must've somehow gotten caught in the fallout, being transported from his world to Skylands!"

"So you're telling me that we've got some kind of machine out there ripping holes in the sky?" Flynn summarised, scratching his chin in what may or may not have been a thoughtful way. "Is it just me or does that sound kind of familiar…?" His eyes then widened.

"The Sky Eater!" the trio said in unison.

"You don't think ol' Kaos has been building another doomsday thingamajig behind our backs, do ya?" Flynn asked, the fur on the back of his neck bristling at the thought.

"I don't know, Flynn, but this is _definitely_ something the Skylanders ought to know about!" Cali declared. "If there's someone out there with the power to potentially create another cataclysmic mega rift, whether they mean to nor not, they must be stopped!"

"Whether they mean to or not?" Flynn repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Now how could somebody _accidentally_ create a catatonic megawhatsit?" he asked with a smile, placing a hand on Cali's shoulder. Cali suppressed the urge to shiver with what she told herself was misplaced pleasure at his touch and gently brushed his hand off.

"Let's hope we never find out," she said before adding in a quiet mutter, "I swear, the moment he starts to take even the _slightest_ bit of interest in quantum physics…"

"Hmm? You say something, Cali?" Flynn asked, tilting his head.

"Never mind," Cali said abruptly, rolling up the parchment and handing it back to Hugo. "Hugo, you go tell Mags that we're getting the Skylanders to look into this. Flynn, go and prepare the Dread Yacht for emergency launch, just in case."

"I thought you'd never ask," Flynn said smugly, flicking his scarf over his shoulder before marching off with a bold, determined and unmistakably self-absorbed look in his eye.

"Um, Flynn? The docking bay is _that_ way," Cali called after him, pointing in the direction opposite to where the self-proclaimed 'greatest pilot in all of Skylands' was going.

"…I knew that," Flynn said after an awkward pause, turning to correct his course. "Just, uh, testing you."

Cali rolled her eyes, but as soon as Flynn was out of her line of sight, she couldn't help but smile at the spot where he had been.

* * *

"Ah, there's nothing like tabletop gaming after a long day out on patrol," Jet-Vac said as he took a seat at the table in the boys' dormitory, Spyro and Pop Fizz already seated, eyeing the game board and the multiple small stacks of rectangular cards on the table with eager anticipation. Josh sat in the nearby armchair, his head back and his eyes closed. He wasn't asleep, but he had developed quite a lax state as a result of spending most of the afternoon tasting pies with Roller Brawl. He actually still had traces of cherry paste and coconut cream around his mouth as he sat there in his white undershirt, his green jacket currently in the laundry hamper Mags had set up in the dormitory's bathroom, for the boy had spilt custard on the garment.

"I still say there's not much difference between the Smash and Overdrive versions of Skystones," Pop Fizz said as he dug one of his blue-furred fingers into his left ear, trying to scratch at an itch deep within. "Same goes for the original game and Creation Clash."

"Yeah, but they're all still fun to play," Spyro inputted, his front right paw on the table. "I mean, with the right deck, you can really make a profit in the tournament scene."

"Yes, well, there'll be no gambling here tonight, boys," Jet-Vac stated firmly. "Mags would go ballistic if she found out that any of us had under-the-table wheelings and dealings going on, and quite frankly, I wouldn't blame her. Gambling always leads to trouble in the end."

Josh heard the nearby door open and opened one eye to see who was coming in. Seeing who it was, he immediately closed his eye again and feigned sleep.

"Evening, my good Skylanders," Professor Brain greeted, carrying a small stack of files in one of his tentacles. "Just stopping by to drop off your assignments for tomorrow," he said, placing the files on the table in the middle of the game board. Each file had a different Elemental symbol on it, corresponding to each of the Skylanders at the table. The three of them picked up their respective files and opened them, browsing the info inside.

"Dragon's Peak? Yeah, I think I can handle patrolling _that_ particular area," Spyro said slyly, raising and lowering his eyebrows repeatedly.

"Sky Schooner Docks? Capital!" Jet-Vac said brightly. "I've been wanting an excuse to look for a new airship. I'll round up the Sky Baron robots and head out at the crack of dawn!"

"Oh!" Pop Fizz exclaimed, sounding disgruntled as he examined his file. "Willikin Village? That place is dull at best and creepy at worst!"

"The assignments can't all be winners, Pop," Jet-Vac told him.

"No, but I'm gonna win this game of Skystones. You see if I don't!" Pop Fizz declared, downing a bottle of potion and turning berserk, his sudden magical increase in mass causing the wooden chair he was sitting in to break apart beneath him, prompting Spyro and Josh, the latter having watched the whole thing through partly open eyelids, to burst out laughing at the Magic Skylander's expense. Jet-Vac covered his beak with a taloned appendage to stifle his own chuckle. Even the Brain had to turn away to hide a smirk.

"I trust the four of you will handle your assignments with vigour," the last of the Ancients said, barely suppressing a chortle as he floated out of the room, leaving the Skylanders to their Skystones game, which ended up being quite competitive, with arguments breaking out over when an Overdrive card could be used, whether or not it was fair to have the Rock card in play, and if the Malefor card ought to be banned in official tournaments due to the sheer amount of damage it could do to the opponent's hand. Finally, Pop Fizz was able to make good on his vow, winning seven of the ten rounds while Spyro and Jet-Vac had one and two victories respectively. Despite their bickering, they all managed to have fun and a few good laughs, with even Josh giving a chuckle at some of the trio's quips and antics. It was close to midnight before the Skylanders finally headed up to bed, Josh staying where he was, having grown too comfortable in the armchair to be bothered moving. It wasn't until the lights were out and the Skylanders were all under the covers in their respective beds that Jet-Vac suddenly sat up, realisation hitting him.

"Hang on, did that Brain say the _four_ of us?"

* * *

"The _four_ of us?" Josh said, his eyes opening wide as the Brain's words caught up with him. He struggled to stand up, finding that his left foot had fallen asleep, tingling profusely in protest as he tried to balance on it. After several long seconds of shaking his leg to return the feeling to it, the young human made his way over to the table, carefully stepping around the broken pieces of Pop Fizz's chair, and searched through the small stack of files, finding that there was indeed a fourth one that had gone unnoticed, perhaps because it was not marked with an Elemental symbol like the others. Josh picked it up and opened it, his eyes widening in disbelief as he read what was written inside…

* * *

Stealth Elf tossed and turned in her bed, trying to get comfortable. The girls' dormitory was silent. _Too_ silent for the Life Skylander's liking.

With a soft sigh, the elf sat up and clicked on the bedside lamp, surveying the empty beds around her, arranged in a circular layout to match the room itself. The other female Skylanders with whom Stealth Elf shared this particular bedroom were all out on night patrols.

All except one.

Stealth narrowed her eyes at Roller Brawl's empty bed, furrowing her brow in suspicion. The derby vampire was usually right there, snoring up a storm. The Life Skylander's pointed right ear then twitched at a sound near the doorway and she whipped her head around, seeing nothing, but she knew better than to believe that no one was there.

"Roller Brawl?" she called, pullng down her mouth guard to make her soft voice carry more clearly across the room. "I _know_ you're there, and I know _you_. It'll take more than you jumping out of the shadows and pulling a silly face to scare me."

Eerie, incoherent whispering was the only response Stelth Elf got. She rolled her eyes and slowly, silently pulled out one of her Dragonfang Daggers, holding it behind her back at the ready.

"If that's the way you want it..." She trailed off, listening intently. The whispering was getting closer. It seemed to be all around her, growing closer, growing more sinister...

Stealth Elf bit her lip. Was it getting cold in here? No. That was all part of Roll's mind game, and Stealth wasn't falling for it. She wouldn't, because she wasn't scared. She wasn't.

She wasn't.

She... wasn't...?

A low hiss to her left. Stealth whipped her head around, again seeing nothing, but now she could clearly hear something moving. She waited, choosing her moment carefully, and then, when her target was in position, she pounced.

 _Crunch._

Instead of striking the chestplate of Roll's derby armour as expected, Stealth Elf's dagger pierced a small toy robot with a wind-up key in its back, causing the toy to crackle faintly with electricity and fall onto its side, powering down. Stealth was flabbergasted. She had been so sure that it had been Roll crouched down there, lying in wait to scare her. Her ninja instincts were almost never wrong, and now she was taken aback.

The bedside lamp suddenly fizzled out, leaving Stealth Elf in darkness, and that was the final straw. Stealth's entire body tensed, the blue hair on the back of her green neck standing on end. She had thought she'd had a grasp on the situation, but now she didn't know what was what. She stood up slowly, swallowing nervously.

The Life Skylander then gasped, realising her mistake too late. She was showing fear.

She was showing that she was _vulnerable_.

And the wise enemy always struck when their prey was vulnerable.

Roller Brawl rose up behind Stealth Elf and grabbed her shoulders in an iron grip very suddenly, causing Stealth to let out a shrill shriek of panic, followed almost immediately by a frustrated groan as Roll cracked up laughing. The lights in the room magically came on and Stealth turned to scowl at the Undead Skylander.

No longer clad in her derby gear, Roll was dressed in a casual black t-shirt with the Undead Element symbol as the insignia, a dark purple skirt and slippers with a spiderweb pattern. She grinned at the look on Stealth's face, her bubblegum pink hair no longer braided, now hanging loose around her shoulders.

"Gotcha!" she teased, pulling Stealth into a playful headlock, which the Life Skylander immediately wrenched herself out of.

"How?" Stealth demanded, her tone icy, a hint of fear still present in her voice and on her face.

"Decoy," Roll said, bending down to pick up the broken robot toy. "You know how you're always creating those illusory copies of yourself that turn into straw scarecrows after a bit to distract your enemies? Well, I just used _your own strategy_ against you and _totally pulled the wool over your eyes!"_ she exclaimed, breaking into a fit of laughter again.

"Funny," Stealth Elf said dully, snatching the toy robot out of Roll's hand and prising her dagger from its chest. She turned away, refusing to look at her fellow Skylander. Roll's face fell when she saw how cold her peer was being.

"Hey, c'mon, it was just a gag," the vampire said, placing a hand on Stealth's shoulder, causing the Life Skylander to tense up again, letting out a small gasp. Roll's eyes widened. "You're actually still scared!" she realised, a huge grin forming on her pale face. "Priceless!"

"Yes! I'm scared!" Stealth snapped, whirling around to face the Undead Skylander once more. "I'm scared because I let some _kook_ catch me with my guard down! What if this had been an actual life or death situation? Where would I be right now, Roller Brawl?" she demanded.

Roll was taken aback by Stealth's words. "Hey, look, I... I'm sorry, okay?" she said. "I only wanted to play a joke on you, not... not get you all riled up like this. Stealth, c'mon," she pleaded as Stealth turned away again, the elf folding her arms. "You know I wouldn't put you in any _real_ danger, right? I mean, yeah, I'm a vampire, but..." She sighed heavily. "Look, how about I let you get me back? C'mon, I'm sure you could really wipe the smile off my-"

Stealth Elf suddenly spun around and tackled Roll to the floor, holding her dagger but a millimetre from the vampire's throat. Roll's eyes went wide, alarmed. Stealth Elf then smiled, lowering her weapon.

"You're lucky I know you," she said slyly, standing up and holding out a gloved hand to help Roll to her feet. The Undead Skylander took it and soon stood upright. She still looked a little shocked from what had just happened, but then she chuckled and playfully punched Stealth in the arm.

"There you go. Knew you had the moxie in there somewhere," the derby vampire said, grinning knowingly.

"Oh, I'll show you moxie," Stealth said quietly before suddenly casting her dagger aside and making a grab for Roll's sides, startling to tickle her ribs with gusto.

"Hey! Wh-Wha-?!" Roll spluttered in bewilderment as Stealth managed to get her comrade down on the floor again, pinning her in place before starting to tickle her all over. "Stealthie! What gives?!" she exclaimed between barely suppressed giggles.

"Is this enough moxie for you? Huh? Is it?" Stealth demanded playfully, being relentless with her tickle assault, with Roll only able to laugh helplessly.

"C'mon, Stealthie, knock it off! You _know_ how ticklish I am! Oh, no, not there! NOT THERE! Aah ha ha haaaaaa...!"


	4. Friendship Is Crazy

Friendship Is Crazy

"So, what'll it be? We've got cornflakes, cinnamon toast, bran muffins…"

Josh was hardly listening to what the Skylander behind the cafeteria's food counter was saying to him, the young human lost in his thoughts. His muddled, perplexed and disbelieving thoughts. He hadn't even noticed that the Undead Skylander behind the counter had a skull for a head. Ghost Roaster, on his part, straightened the staff apron he currently wore over his red and black robe, his bony hands only having three fingers each. It hadn't escaped the ghoul's notice that Josh wasn't paying attention to his words.

"Of course, if you're after something a little more exotic, we've got pickled eyeballs, ectoplasmic gruel, spider stew..."

Josh jerked back to reality at the mention of such unholy cuisine. "Huh?!" he exclaimed, not even sure if he'd heard correctly. Ghost Roaster chuckled knowingly at the look on the boy's face. Josh shook his head to try and clear it. "Sorry," he said. "I was up late last night thinking about… stuff." He decided not to bore the Skylander on cooking duty with the details of what was on his mind. Ghost Roaster smirked, assuming that Josh had been thinking about girls.

"Yes, I _thought_ listing off a few undead culinary wonders might wake you up," the ghoul said, chuckling. "We actually only have the pickled eyeballs and ectoplasmic gruel today. We're still waiting for our spider supply to be restocked." He chuckled again as Josh visibly expressed discomfort, shivering at the notion of a cook knowingly keeping live spiders in the kitchen for any reason, let alone as ingredients. "Rest assured that we keep the undead cuisine and the, shall we say, more typical dishes carefully separated under sanitary conditions. Skylander Academy is nothing if not diverse… in every sense of the word."

Josh didn't really know what to say to that. "I'll just have the cinnamon toast, please," he said, deciding to just grab something to eat and move along. He was aware that at least three other Skylanders were waiting in line behind him, and that one of them was tapping their foot impatiently. As Ghost Roaster lined the boy's tray with toast and little packets of butter and marmalade, Josh found himself watching the foot-tapping Skylander out of the corner of his eye. He appeared to be a humanoid shark of some variety. A sand shark, perhaps. The shark man had his noticeably muscular arms folded as he waited. He didn't seem to be looking at Josh, for which the boy was thankful. The last thing Josh wanted was to have a Skylander giving him the evil eye, least of all one who looked so intimidating.

"Well, look what the desert dragged in," the familiar voice of Roller Brawl said in a jovial yet sly tone as she skated up to join the cue, the shark man turning to look at her. "Haven't seen you in a while, Terrafin. Still flaunting those muscles to every lady who crosses your vision?"

Josh's jaw dropped as Roll's sheer nerve. This guy looked like he could break her in half just by glaring at her hard enough! To the young human's surprise, however, the shark man, Terrafin, burst out laughing at Roll's taunt.

"Ha! I see you haven't changed a bit, Brawly," Terrafin said in his gruff voice, pulling Roll into a friendly headlock that looked agonisingly painful, not least because of the strained expression on Roll's face, her eyes bulging out of her head. "I also see that you've toughened up since I last saw you," the Earth Skylander said as he put his younger cohort down, patting her on the back in a somewhat rough manner. "The last time I put you in a headlock like that, they had to resuscitate you!" He laughed uproariously at that. "Good thing the undead are made to handle some of the rougher stuff."

"I never agreed to that dumb nickname, but still, good to see ya… buddy." Roll said with a smile, rubbing the back of her now aching neck, having not yet equipped her metal claws. She held out her pale fist. Terrafin grinned and fist-bumped it. Josh was still baffled by the friendship that the big-mouthed vampire and the roughneck dirt shark shared, but a part him knew that he shouldn't have been surprised. Roll was impulsive. That much had been clear from the get-go, and befriending a burly bruiser with whom she could roughhouse seemed like just the sort of reckless thing the Undead Skylander would do.

"Takes all kinds," Josh muttered knowingly, turning away from Roll, only for her to quite literally slide on over to stand next to him.

"Morning, Sneakers!" she greeted energetically, ignoring the annoyed comments of her fellow Skylanders, who weren't too happy about how the derby vampire had shamelessly jumped the queue. She then stared at him, tilting her head this way and that. "What's with the scarf?" she asked at last.

Josh reached up and clutched self-consciously at the light blue kerchief he wore around his neck, the accessory bearing a small insignia on the side, which depicted a horned viking helmet - Eon's symbol. Before he could utter a single word, Roller Brawl suddenly let out a long, loud and very over-the-top gasp, causing the easily embarrassed boy's cheeks to redden as the Undead Skylander put two and two together.

"Ooh, this is _goooooooooooooooooood!"_ Roll cooed with a truly delirious grin on her face, her glowing eyes seeming brighter than normal. "Looks like _somebody's_ going on a trainee mission!" she teased, ruffling the young human's blonde hair.

"C'mon, Roll, I'm nervous enough already," Josh moaned quietly, really wishing his friend - crazy as he knew it was to consider an even _more_ crazy vampire his friend - wouldn't draw attention to him like this.

"Nervous? What've you got to be nervous about?" Roll asked, her face suddenly inches from Josh's as she stared at him intently, her shining purple eyes seeming to burn into his.

"Gee, I _wonder_ what..." Josh muttered under his breath, causing Roll to burst out laughing.

"You are so priceless, you know that?" she asked, her mad grin persisting. "A sly wink or a bared tooth and your legs turn to jelly! It's uncanny!"

"S-So is the company I keep!" Josh managed to splutter, offering a weak chuckle after his daring retort. Roll, on her part, found herself laughing harder than ever.

"Oh, you slay me, Sneakers! You _slay_ me!" she exclaimed, wiping a tear of mirth from her eye.

"Great. Now would you slayers grab your kill and move along so the rest of us can eat today?" the Skylander in line right behind Roller Brawl demanded, flames suddenly flaring up on top of his head. Josh cried out in startlement. The Skylander was a horse with a bright red coat and yellow eyes, his bridle and saddle made of thick steel. This armoured equestrian's mane and tail appeared to be made of flames, which seemed to be growing more intense with every passing moment. His bridle had a smoke funnel atop it, not unlike that of a steam locomotive. It gave the Fire Skylander the appearance of a unicorn, and a fierce-looking one.

"T-Trail Blazer?!" Roll cried, sounding alarmed for the first time since Josh had met her. She quickly composed herself, however, clearing her throat. "Oh, um, there," she said with what seemed to be forced calm, hurriedly snatching up a lunch tray with nothing on it in one hand and grabbing Josh by the arm with the other. "Come on, Josh, let's find a table," she hissed anxiously.

As Josh found himself being dragged away, he glanced back at Trail Blazer in time to see the equestrian roll his eyes at Roll's behaviour.

"Wow, that guy really spooked you," the boy mused once he and his cohort were seated.

Roll forced a scoff. "Hardly," she insisted. "I just... remembered that I have somewhere to be after breakfast."

It was Josh's turn to give a wild grin. "Sure, Roll. _Now_ who's legs are turning to jelly?" he asked, playfully nudging the derby vampire in the shoulder.

"Oh, shut up," Roll declared, causing Josh to laugh. The Undead Skylander's stomach then rumbled. Josh heard it and his amusement faded to be replaced with knowing compassion.

"Wanna go halves?" he offered, gesturing to the four slices of toast stacked up before him.

Roll smiled. "Cheers," she said. On that note, the two began to tuck into their shared breakfast. Trail Blazer watched them from afar with a furrowed brow as Ghost Roaster served him his rolled oats...

* * *

The swish of a sword. The splintering of a wooden crate. Those two sounds went together like bacon and eggs. As the jagged purple blade cleaved yet another wooden box, the Imaginator that wielded the sword took a step back to admire her handiwork, a satisfied smile on her mouth, which was lined with blue lipstick.

The Imaginator was of the Knight class and the Dark Element, literally built for sword combat and shadow magic. She was dressed in a purple vest that left little to the imagination, barely covering her chest while leaving her navel exposed. Her legs were garbed with chain mail, her ankles protected by bat-themed greaves. A skull belt buckle sat directly over her lower body. She had a bipedal, humanoid build with short purple hair, red eyes, pointed elf ears with red earrings, the wings of a bat and the striped tail of a lemur. The physical trait that really stood out, however, was that of her arms.

Black, scaly appendages ending in not hands, but the heads of snakes, each of them having glittering orange eyes, the hilt of the Imaginator's sword grasped in the fangs of the right snake head.

The Imaginator turned away from the remaining crates. "How was that, Master?" she asked, addressing the Sensei who had trained her. Her face fell, however, when she saw that her 'Master' had not been paying the slightest bit of attention to her demonstration, for he was now sprawled out on the beach's golden sand, fast asleep, his mouth hanging open, tongue lolling out. The Imaginator rolled her eyes at the sight of him.

"Whoa!" The Sensei jumped up, startled by the loud _thud_ that occurred when his pupil suddenly drove her blade into the ground right next to him. Realising what had happened, the orange-furred Sensei relaxed, stretching and yawning lazily, running a gloved hand through his brown mohawk. He straightened his blue jeans, glanced down to make sure his red sneakers didn't have untied laces and stood watching his apprentice with a lax smile, blinking his green eyes.

"Master, while I don't doubt that there is method in your madness, I believe that it is very important to be focused and vigilant when-"

Crash Bandicoot held up a hand to silence her. He turned to face the stack of crates, only a few boxes remaining. He walked over and developed a battle ready stance… or at least what he probably _thought_ was a battle ready stance. He looked more like he was about to start dancing, and knowing Crash, that possibility wasn't too unlikely.

"Oh, you want us to practice _that_ technique?" the Imaginator guessed, knowing her Master well. While Crash was a Brawler rather than a Knight, he had specifically chosen to work with the latter, having learned from his own mentor, Aku Aku, that a good teacher needed to be versatile. There was only so much about swords that a Knight Imaginator could learn from a Knight Sensei, and Crash wanted his Skylander apprentice to be more than just a Knight, just as he was more than just a destructive crate smasher. Probably.

Crash stretched his arms out at his sides, started to run forward and then broke into his signature spin attack, striking the nearest crate and completely shattering it into splinters. The Imaginator watched carefully, feeling a slight sense of apprehension. Her own spin attack was still a work in-progress, as Crash no doubt knew. She bit her lip as Crash stepped back to give her some room to manoeuvre, waiting for her to follow in his example.

"I'll do my best, Master," the Dark Skylander said with forced calm as she readied herself. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath in through the nose, letting it out slowly through the mouth… and then her eyes flew open, her right snake arm shooting out to the side, the serpent's fangs clamped tightly around her weapon. The Imaginator raced forward, twirling as she went, swinging her sword in a wide 360 arc, and then-

Crash's eyes lit up as his apprentice stepped back, an entire pile of shattered crates resting before her, having been decimated by her well-executed blade spin attack.

"I… I did it," she said almost in disbelief, her eyes wide. Then she grinned broadly. "Oh, yeah!" she exclaimed, thrusting her sword into the air and doing an on-the-spot jig, her hair magically catching alight with blue fire in her excitement. She then realised what she was doing and quickly composed herself, the blue flames going out. "I mean… Thank you for believing in me, Master," she said more professionally.

Crash smiled and held out his hand. The Imaginator took it in her free snake head, careful not to bite into the bandicoot's palm with the fangs.

Right then, a rather high-pitched growl rang out and three Greebles suddenly jumped out from behind the nearest Wumpa tree, each of them armed with clubs. Crash chuckled confidently, ready for the challenge.

"Let's do this, Master!" the Imaginator declared, raising her sword skyward, causing it to be struck by lightning from out of nowhere, powering it up. She then joined her Master in developing a fighting stance, her hair flaring up again as she proclaimed her Skylander battle cry: "Brace for… my ultimate awesomeness!"

* * *

 **Yeah, I decided to throw one of the Imaginators I made in-game to the wolves of the internet. I just really wanted an excuse to have Crash working with another Skylander that could do a spin attack.**

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and stay tuned for more.**


	5. Ship-Shape Shipping

Ship-Shape Shipping

Roller Brawl chuckled to herself as she stood at the Academy's entrance, watching as Josh nervously clambered into the back of the Splatter Splasher; the paint-powered speedboat that belonged to Splat, the Sea Vehicle currently moored in the small body of water that took up one corner of the courtyard.

"Knock 'em dead out there, Sneakers," the Undead Skylander said quietly, smiling at the boy, who had his back to her. Right on cue, Splat leapt into the driver's seat, pulling her gold goggles down over her eyes.

"Hold on!" the faun told the young human enthusiastically, looking back at him as she revved the motor. Josh gripped the sides of the boat, bracing himself. He still ended up crying out in alarm as the Splatter Splasher suddenly shot forward, prompting Roll to laugh at his panic. A large, round vortex of bright yellow opened at the edge of the island where the water flowed over the side and the boat disappeared into it, abruptly cutting off Josh's panicked cry. The vortex instantly closed, leaving no trace, and Roll casually skated away, knowing that she'd get the chance to catch up with her endearingly hapless friend later. In the meantime, she had her own patrol to get to.

"Roller Brawl!"

"Oh, boy. I know _that_ voice…" Roll muttered to herself as she brought herself to a stop and turned around. Sure enough, Sprocket was marching towards her, the Goldling's goggles pushed up, revealing her milky white eyes that bore no discernible pupils. Knowing what was coming, Roll forced a friendly smile in greeting, and a very obviously forced smile at that. "Heyyyy, it's my favourite Tech Skylander!" the derby vampire said through noticeably clenched teeth, skating up to meet Sprocket halfway and put an arm around her. "Always good to see you. I'd love to stay and hang out, but I've kinda got things to do, so I should probably…"

Sprocket showed no signs of amusement or willingness to play along as Roll intentionally trailed off. "You quite finished?" the Tech Skylander asked dryly.

Roll dropped the friendly facade immediately, removing her arm from around her fellow Skylander. "I know what you're gonna say, Sprocket," she said. "The same thing you _always_ ride my backside about, and frankly, I'm getting tried of hearing it."

"Well, in my defense, I'm getting tired of having to say it in the first place," Sprocket responded, her tone calm despite the clear annoyance on her face; she didn't appreciate Roll's rudeness. "Of course, I wouldn't _have_ to say it time and time again if you'd just— Would you stop that, please?!" she demanded, Noticing that Roll was opening and closing her hand repeatedly, mimicking the movements of Sprocket's mouth. "I'm trying to have a civilised, level-headed conversation with you and you're not making it easy!"

"Sprocket, the Tomb Buggy's my baby, alright? If I'm a little rough with her, that's just my way of showing her some love," Roll stated. She went to put her arm around Sprocket again, but the Goldling shook her off this time, still not about to fall for the derby vampire's charismatic charm, which Roll was laying on thick. "Look, we go over this every other day, bantering back and forth about spilled transmission fluid, dents in a Rift Engine that's supposed to be indestructible by definition… Tell me, what're we solving by arguing all the time? At the end of the day, you always find a way to fix whatever part of my ride is busted, so what's the problem? It all works out in the long run."

"That's not the…! Oh, forget it," Sprocket said, shaking her head in exasperation. "One day, your careless attitude and reckless behaviour are gonna land you in hot water, but in the meantime…" The Goldling sighed heavily before changing the subject. "How's that Joshua kid? I saw you socialising with him at breakfast."

"Ah, he's fine. A little jittery, but he's settled in like bones in a grave," Roll summarised. "You can thank me for a big part of that," she added smugly.

A slight disbelieving chuckle escaped Sprocket's mouth. "You mean you haven't scared him out of his wits yet with your overzealous behaviour?" she said half-seriously.

"Overzealous? Sprocket, you don't give me enough credit," Roll insisted, folding her arms.

"I know. That's why I'm not _completely_ shocked that you haven't driven him out of his mind yet."

"Hey, at least I'm more fun to hang around than _you_ ," Roll declared, starting to get annoyed at what Sprocket was saying about her. "All you ever talk about in a social setting is mechanics. Even for a Tech Skylander, you just babble on and on about cogs and gears and nuts and bolts and computer chips and… fusion units or whatever you call them!" she exclaimed. "It's no wonder you could barely get two words out of Josh when he first turned up! He probably couldn't get a word in edgewise!"

"He wouldn't talk because he was scared and confused!" Sprocket snapped. "He'd been flung headlong into a world far removed from his own! It was a lot for him to take in, so he was in shock! _That's_ why he was so reserved at first, and you would do well to take it slowly with him, Roller Brawl," she warned. "It's no secret that you live and die, for lack of a better phrasing, by the word 'impulse', and that's the last thing a young boy unceremoniously cast from the safety of his home into a strange new world needs during such a period of drastic lifestyle change and adjustment!"

"He's _fine_ , Sprocket!" Roll insisted. "You know how I know? Because I've _been there_ , Sprocket. I know what it's like to lose a home and a family due to forces beyond my control. At least Joshua has only been away from his loved ones for little more than a week, and hasn't been looking for his _missing brothers_ for several _years_ ," she concluded, her tone steadily progressing from callous to angry as she spoke. When she finished, she stood there for a long moment, seeming to be going over what she had just said. Then she sighed, reaching up to take off her helmet. She held it in her claw-garbed right hand as she turned it over, gazing at the skull design she and her five brothers had cooperatively carved into it all those years ago, her expression one of deep sadness. "I know how he feels. Scared. Hopeless. Alone."

Sprocket's irritated gaze softened, her frustrations replaced with a pang of guilt. She hadn't meant to inadvertently remind Roller Brawl of her lost brothers. She reached up and pulled her goggles down over her eyes. "Roller, I… I'm sorry. I have my issues with your careless attitude, yes, but that doesn't mean I should disregard the fact that things have been hard for you, too. Your demeanour… It's a facade, isn't it? To hide the pain."

Roll bit her lip with one of her fangs. "Something like that," she mumbled before placing her helmet atop her head once more, making sure it sat straight. "Either way, I'm gonna make sure Josh sees that he's not alone. If the Skylanders are supposed to help people, then I'm gonna make it my mission to help _him_. You see if I don't!" she declared. On that note, she briskly skated away before Sprocket could say anything more.

* * *

 _I'm starting to think he'll never learn._

 _The Skylanders are on high alert for suspicious activity, and rightfully so. We need to be ready for anything. We need to conserve airship fuel for emergency situations, and we certainly can't afford to draw attention to ourselves; there are probably enemy spies everywhere._

 _So what does HE decide to do at this time of crucial resourcefulness and discretion?_

 _He decides to take the Dread Yacht out on a joyride for no reason other than, to use his own words, 'for old time's sake'._

 _And of course, he's got the Troll Radio up on the main deck, blaring pop music at full volume. Gee, can't see THAT drawing stares at wherever we end up docking… or crashing, more likely. Even as I write this, he's flying like a total maniac and_

Cali's hand slid wildly across the page as the Dread Yacht experienced another bout of turbulence, the quill she was holding smearing a horizontal line of ink along the parchment. The door of the ship's cabin then swung open again, banging in the wind, not secured at all. The Mabu girl suppressed an irritated sigh, closing her diary and getting to her feet, almost falling over as the airship lurched again. It hadn't escaped Cali's notice that the bouts of turbulence seemed oddly rhythmic.

Stepping out of the cabin, Cali made her way across the deck, up to where Flynn was managing the ship's steering wheel. The Troll Radio next to him was blaring out that annoying pop song that had been playing constantly on loop lately, and of course, Flynn was singing along with it in his distinctly tone deaf singing voice as he jerked the wheel this way and that in time with the music.

 _"HEY, YEAH, WE SHOULD COME TOGETHER_

 _LET'S BE HEROES IN THE NIGHT…"_

"Flynn? _Flynn!"_ Cali snapped, trying to get the pilot's attention. She waved her arms in front of his face, but he had his eyes closed, having become lost in the music, a big stupid grin on his face.

 _"LIKE SPOTLIGHTS GLEAMING IN A BLACK SKY,_

 _WE CAN LIFT THE DARKNESS WITH—"_

"FLYNN!" Cali shouted in frustration, grabbing the male Mabu by the shoulders and shaking him to get his attention. Flynn yelped, startled, jerking the steering wheel so violently in his moment of panic that the entire ship nearly turned on its side in midair. He quickly straightened up the aircraft before anything - or anyone - could go tumbling into the sky. The pilot then wiped a faint trace of sweat from his brow before shutting off the nearby radio.

"Wowsers, Cali, I know you can barely keep your mind off me, let alone your hands, but trust me when I say that it's _not_ a good idea to distract a pilot when he's at the wheel!" Flynn exclaimed, flicking his red scarf over his shoulder and straightening his goggles.

"You were _already_ distracted, Flynn!" Cali scolded, jabbing a clawed finger towards the Troll Radio. "You were more focused on listening to that silly pop music than watching the skies ahead!"

"I… I was?" Flynn managed, shifting uncomfortably on the spot, clearly ashamed at the poor example he had been setting as the self-proclaimed 'greatest pilot in all of Skylands'. "Uh, I mean, of course I was!" he then blurted out hurriedly, quick to throw up a facade.

Cali stared at him. _"What?"_

"It takes true finesse to pretend to be distracted like that," Flynn elaborated, completely talking out of his backside, so to speak, "And I was wondering when you were going to notice. You showed real confidence and courage by not going into a panic the moment you realised that this ship's flight pattern had gone awry. Very well done there, Cali. You, uh, passed my test."

"Test? _What_ test?" Cali spluttered, not buying Flynn's story for a second.

"The, uh… The test to determine… whether or not you're, um…" Flynn bit his lip nervously, beads of sweat beginning to appear on his face as he struggled to use all two of the presumed amount of brain cells Cali believed him to have in order to think his way out of this. "Whether you qualify to be my assistant pilot! Yes, that's it - my new assistant pilot who is in charge of… uh… assistant piloting! …And stuff."

Cali stared at Flynn, a deadpan expression on her face. "Really? _That_ was the best you could come up with?" she asked dully.

Flynn scratched the back of his head sheepishly, letting out a nervous chuckle. "Well, I also had this backup story about a giant Sky Kraken attacking the ship…" he mumbled, cheeks reddening in embarrassment.

Cali cocked an eyebrow, prompting the man to sigh in defeat.

"I'll, uh, just leave the radio off for the rest of the trip," he said awkwardly. "Sound good?"

Cali looked thoughtful. "No, not really," she said after a moment. "After all, without the radio, all I've got to listen to is your voice for the next twenty miles."

Flynn stared at her incredulously, the idea of someone not liking the sound of his voice, to say nothing of his long-since established _crush_ not liking it, being a total slap to the face in his mind.

Cali then walked over to stand beside Flynn, nudging him in the side. "I'm just messing with you," she told him, grinning. This statement immediately put Flynn at ease and he chuckled, grabbing the Mabu girl in a playful headlock with his free arm, careful to keep one hand on the steering wheel.

"Cali, you really are something," he told her, keeping his eyes on the skies ahead as he spoke, turning the wheel slightly to the left.

Cali felt her cheeks redden profusely as Flynn's grip settled into a more relaxed, gentle hold, his arm draped around her shoulders as he continued to fly the Dread Yacht into the sunset. "Right back at you, big guy," she whispered, making sure her words weren't loud enough for him to hear.

Back in the ship's cabin, Cali's diary had fallen off the desk, now lying open on the floor, the words of one of her previous entries clear for anyone to see:

 _He's annoying, and a total goof at times, but he continues to grow on me._

 _That's right. Boom._

* * *

 **Another bonding moment between Flynn and Cali, with the implication of some bonding moments between Josh and Roll in the future.**

 **…Yeah, I couldn't decide on what Josh's first mission should be, so I decided to leave it ambiguous in favour of… Well, you'll see when I upload the next chapter. Maybe.**

 **In the continued absence of a new _Skylanders_ game, someone's gotta keep the Portal Master torch alive with (mostly) true-to-form fanfics like this one. Might as well be me.**

 **Peace out for now.**


	6. Taking The Cake

Taking The Cake

Cold. That was how it felt to have a stethoscope pressed gently against one's bare chest for minutes at a time. Cold and slightly uncomfortable.

It hadn't been uncomfortable at first, but even without the cold of the little metal circle that the skin of Josh's torso was currently being subjected to, the laboratory of sorts that Mags had built for herself in the Skylander Academy's basement was cold in its own right, especially to someone not wearing a shirt.

Or jeans.

Or socks.

No, the only garment that remained on Josh's body at present were his white boxers, keeping his lower body covered and leaving every other part of him exposed to the chilly atmosphere of the lab. As he sat there on the padded stretcher Mags had ushered him onto, his legs dangling over the side, Josh was keenly aware of how thoroughly the undead inventor was examining him, and indeed how thoroughly she _had_ been examining him for the last fifteen minutes… and how thoroughly she'd probably _still_ be examining him fifteen minutes from now.

As soon as the young human had come back from his reconnaissance mission with Splat, Mags had hurried him in here, insistent on giving him a one heck of a physical. She had given him the works - tongue suppressant, hearing test, blood pressure, vision test, reflex reaction, taking his temperature… The only thing she _hadn't_ given him as of yet, much to his relief, was an injection of any variety.

"Miss Mags, if you don't mind me asking, how much longer is this gonna go on for?" Josh asked as Mags shifted the position of the stethoscope ever so slightly, barely moving it half an inch. "It's just that I'm starting to feel a little chilly, sitting here like this."

"Huh? You say somethin'?" Mags asked, taking what Josh had thought were the stethoscope's earbuds out of her ears, but were, in actuality, the buds of a music player that the undead inventor had been carrying in her pocket. For all his polite, mild-mannered tendencies, Josh didn't even _try_ to hide his groan of annoyance.

"Miss Mags, with all due respect, do you even _have_ a medical degree?" the boy enquired, irritation clearly present in his tone.

"Medical what-now?" was Mags' immediate replay. Josh stared at her, and then she grinned. "I'm joking," she assured him, giving him a playful nudge in the shoulder. "An' never mind the whole 'Miss' shebang; just call me Mags. I don't like my friends bein' so formal with me an' stuff." She removed the stethoscope from the boy's chest. "Alright, you can put your shirt back on now. Never trusted these things to track someone's heartbeat, anyway. Just figured I'd humour you a little with the stereotypical stuff, make you feel more at home."

"Right," Josh said, not sure if he bought into that; he was sure that the undead inventor was a bit of a kook, albeit a well-meaning one. "Remind me again why you're examining me? You don't think I caught something while out on the mission, d'you?"

"That's what I'm checkin' ya for," Mags stated proudly. "Never know when you might come down with lizard pox. Lot o' that goin' around at this time o' year."

Josh raised an eyebrow. "Lizard pox?"

"Like chicken pox, only more reptilian," Mags elaborated. "It's more common in dragons, but other races can get it, too. It's rarely fatal, but it can get pretty darn painful in its later stages, especially when left untreated."

Josh blinked. He honestly couldn't tell if the purple-haired woman was messing with him or not. "How d'you treat it?" he asked.

"Corn syrup. Lots o' corn syrup." Mags stated as she gently lifted Josh's arm, tracing a finger from his underarm down to his waist. It was all Josh could do to refrain from squirming; he was very ticklish.

Josh considered asking whether one was supposed to drink the corn syrup or rub it on themselves, but he didn't want to tempt the possibility of Mags deciding to sponge him down with the substance just to make sure he was immune… or just to mess with him.

"You shave your underarms," Mags noted as she continued to examine the boy's upper body.

Josh's eyes widened. "I do not!" he spluttered, his cheeks reddening at the thought.

"And you moisturise 'em."

Josh looked like he was going to fall off the stretcher. "Why would I—?" he began, but Mags was already laughing.

"I'm just joshin' ya!" She exclaimed, still giggling. "Ya get it? Joshin'? 'Cause your name is _Joshua_?"

Josh groaned again, closing his eyes for a moment. "Mags, can we _please_ wrap this up? We've been in here for twenty minutes and I think we would've found out by now if I had lizard pox… assuming _that_ wasn't just a bit of joshing, too," he added in a dark mutter.

"Okay, okay," Mags said, still chortling. "In all seriousness, you seem fit as a fiddle… save for one area I haven't examined yet."

Josh's face fell. "Must I?" he asked pleadingly.

"Now, now, Joshua - we're all civilised beings here. Don't even _think_ about quoting me on that," she added slyly, and Josh laughed at that, his smile fading as he slid off the stretcher, stood upright and, with great reluctance and apprehension, let his boxers drop around his ankles.

* * *

"Well, well. The triumphant return," the familiar voice of Roller Brawl greeted as Josh entered the Academy's cafeteria, fumbling with the zipper of his green jacket. He was glad to have it back from the laundry, but not as glad as he was to look up and see the derby vampire sitting there at the nearest table, waiting for him with a fanged yet friendly grin on her face.

"Returned? Yes. Triumphant? Well, I could've done a lot worse, I'm sure," Josh said, returning his friend's grin. Roll laughed.

"So, how'd it go?" the Undead Skylander asked eagerly as the young human sat down across from her. "Gimme all the details. Don't leave anything out. Did you do great, or did you totally rock?!"

"Well, actually, there's not really much to tell," Josh admitted. "We just went to the Mabu Marketplace, kept an eye out for any suspicious activity, broke for lunch, picked up where we left off and then we headed back here just before sunset."

"Oh," Roll said, sounding just a little disappointed. "Well, I guess you had a pretty peaceful first time out in the field, then. I'm happy for you," she told him, but there was a faint hint of insincerity in her words. Josh noticed that the vampire had averted her eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked, genuinely curious as to what was troubling her.

"Wrong? Nothing's wrong," Roll assured him as she caught his eye once more, offering a smile that seemed uncharacteristically meek. "I'm just… glad you enjoyed yourself." She averted her eyes again.

Josh didn't get it. Had she _not_ wanted him to enjoy his first time doing fieldwork? Was she perhaps jealous of him?

"Say, Sneakers, you hungry?" Roll then asked, perking up again with her usual enthusiastic demeanour.

Right on cue, Josh's stomach rumbled. "Starving," he admitted, getting to his feet. "I'll buy. What d'you feel like?" he asked, glancing over at the food counter, behind which Stealth Elf gave a wave in greeting, Ghost Roaster's shift having ended for the day.

"No, no, no!" Roll said hurriedly, leaping up and skating around the table. "Dinner's on me, Joshy-boy. It's the least I can do."

Josh was surprised by that. "For what?" he enquired.

"For a job well done," Roll told him, smiling at him. "Not everyone can go out there and get it right the first time. I sure as heck didn't."

Josh stared at Roll's retreating back as she skated over to the food counter, not sure what to make of her odd shift in attitude. Once again, the most unpredictable Skylander he'd encountered thus far had managed to perplex him, but not for the reasons he had been starting to grow accustomed to, if that made any sense. _Did_ it make sense? Probably not. Roller Brawl herself didn't make sense, after all.

And yet, that, Josh realised, was exactly what he liked about her. He smiled.

"That's Roll alright," he said to himself knowingly as he took a seat once more. "She's really something. I'm not sure _what_ , but she's definitely something," he declared, chuckling.

Over at the food counter, Roll was caught up in her thoughts as Stealth Elf spooned ravioli and potato bake onto a lunch tray. _'I don't get it,'_ the derby vampire mused mentally. _'Just one day outside the Academy and his confidence has gone right up. I was sure that he'd feel overwhelmed, that he'd need me to reassure him or something, but…'_ She shook her head to try and clear it. _'Well, whatever. If he's happy, then that's good enough for the moment.'_

"You want anything to drink with that?" Stealth asked as she passed the tray to Roll.

"How 'bout some blood?" Roll asked almost automatically. "N-Not yours," she added quickly, noticing how taken aback the Life Skylander looked at the request. "Then again," she went on, her trademark mischievous grin stretching across her face, "If you've got the time and the veins, I've got the fangs…"

"I'll get you a strawberry milk," Stealth Elf said coldly, not really in the mood for Roll's nonsense. The forest ninja turned away from the counter and approached the nearby fridge.

"No blood on the menu, huh?" Roll called after her with what she probably thought was nonchalance. "Guess I'll just have to stop by the hospital later, see if anyone's donated recently."

A cream cake suddenly smacked headlong into Roll's face. The Undead Skylander slowly reached up to carefully rake the frosting away from her eyes and airways with her metal claws.

"It was worth it!" she cried as Stealth came back with the flavoured milk drink. "Hey, as long as you're at it, can I get two of those? The drinks, I mean," she added quickly as Stealth raised an eyebrow, no doubt having considered the idea of throwing a second cream cake at Roll. "One's for my friend."

Stealth Elf glanced over at Josh, who hadn't yet noticed what was going on at the food counter. He turned to see if the food was ready yet and his jaw dropped at the sight of Roll's face, whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles decorating her cheeks.

"I'm good!" the derby vampire assured him from afar. "Stealthie here just didn't appreciate a joke I made! Everything's cool!"

Josh turned away once more, shaking his head and trying, quite unsuccessfully, not to laugh.

* * *

 **And speaking of laughter, I'd like to think that at least some of you got a good laugh out of this chapter.**

 **See you in the next one!**


	7. Hot Chocolate With Nuts

**As you may have noticed, I changed up the summary a bit to give passerby a better idea of what to expect from this fanfic.**

 **Speaking of which, I hope you're all enjoying the story so far. At the risk of scaring you all away, I'll freely admit that I'm largely just making it up as I go along. Hey, don't even worry about it. Let's just have fun with this, okay?**

* * *

Hot Chocolate With Nuts

The boys' dormitory was quiet, or at least it _would_ be if not for the loud snoring of Pop Fizz, the wacky alchemist sprawled out atop the covers of the bed directly across from Josh's. The young human suppressed a sigh, realising that he probably wasn't going to get to sleep anytime soon. He considered going downstairs to the comfortable armchair in the break room below, but he felt that he ought not to get too accustomed to sleeping in a chair or else he'd _never_ get used to sharing a bedroom with the Skylanders.

Sharing a room with the Skylanders. A strange bedroom in a strange place filled with some of the strangest beings Josh had ever encountered. Who was he kidding? He never _would_ get used to this. He'd never get used to being away from his family, knowing that he might never see them again, than he might never go home again.

Just like that, tears welled up in Josh's eyes as his homesickness caught up with him. He'd managed to keep it down for the last few days, making it a point to busy himself with tasks that would take his mind off his circumstances, but now that there was nothing to distract him, the reality of what had happened to him was once again hitting him hard.

Barely able to see what he was doing through the watery haze that now clouded his vision, Josh threw the covers aside and leapt out of bed, fumbling almost blindly towards the doorway, tripping over a small telescope someone had left on the floor as he went, stumbling and almost losing his balance. The telescope went spinning across the wooden floor with a loud clatter, causing one of the Skylanders to jerk awake at the sound. Josh didn't know who it was and he didn't care. He just wanted to get out of here. After days of putting on a brave face, he just wanted to run away from it all. He wanted to run and run and never look back, without a single thought as to where he was going.

"Joshua? Josh, wait!" the familiar voice of Spyro called. Josh ignored it and pressed on, hastily making his way down to the break room where he collapsed onto his hands and knees, tears streaming from his eyes to land on the carpet. Small sobs began to escape him as he remained there, trembling in a state of misery. The sound of two sets of footsteps moving in tandem with one another told the boy that the quadrupedal purple dragon was approaching from behind.

"Don't," the young human managed tearfully as Spyro stepped up beside him in the gloom. "Just… Just don't."

There was a distinct _whoosh_ and the unmistakable glow of fire and Josh gasped in alarm. He reached up with one arm to wipe his eyes and saw that the candelabra on the nearby wall had been lit up, its candles now bearing little flames that bathed the room in a gentle glow.

"Joshua, it's okay," Spyro told him gently, gently placing his front left foot over Josh's hand, careful not to scratch the boy's skin with his dragon talons. "Whatever it is, you can talk about it with me, with any of us. We're all on the same team here."

Josh gave a pathetic little whine before forcing himself to his feet. He took a step forward and then positively staggered to the nearby armchair, twirling on the spot and collapsing into it. He then broke down into another bout of tearful sobs that lasted for just under a minute before the boy drew a great shuddering breath, exhaled deeply and then slumped back in the chair, sinking into it, his head down. For a moment, Spyro thought Josh had managed to cry himself to sleep, but then the boy spoke in a barely audible voice.

"I miss my Mom," he mumbled woefully. "I miss my home, my bedroom, my family. I kn-know there's nothing that can be done about it right now, but…" The young human gave a whimper and shed a few more tears, his breaths still shaky and sporadic.

Spyro knew he had to say something to comfort his young comrade, but what? Surely, he couldn't just tell Josh that it'd all work out when there was no way of knowing if it actually would anytime soon, if at all? He couldn't do that. He couldn't give Josh that kind of false hope just like that, but he had to do _something_. The dragon thought for a moment, and then an idea occurred to him.

"Right now, I think you could use a glass of water… or even a hot chocolate," the Magic Skylander said warmly. "Maybe with Marshmallows? What d'you say?"

Josh managed a small, almost reluctant smile, reaching up to wipe a tear from his gold left eye. "I… I think I'd like that," he admitted, giving a little hiccough as he spoke.

* * *

"Alright, two foamy hot chocolates comin' right up!" Pop Fizz declared enthusiastically as he slammed his rucksack down upon the break room table, starting to pull various beakers filled with strange chemicals out of it. The now awake alchemist wasted no time getting to work, mixing yellow goop with a purple compound, then adding a suspicious-looking green powder to a bright red liquid, and so on. Spyro and Josh watched him as he worked, the young human doing so apprehensively.

"Does he really know what he's doing?" Josh whispered to Spyro after a long moment.

The dragon hesitated before answering, "Let's just see how this plays out."

In hindsight, Spyro realised that Pop Fizz probably wasn't the best individual to request a late night drink from, but the Academy cafeteria was closed at this hour, and trying to sneak snacks from behind the counter would result in who-knows-what, given all the booby traps Mags had in place after hours to stop anyone from stealing the cupcakes on display, and Pop Fizz was never one to turn down an opportunity to, in his own words, 'mix up some mayhem'.

After several more minutes of beakers clinking against each other, Pop Fizz placed down two large vials of lightly steaming brown liquid with a layer of white foam on top. "Alright, order up!" the Magic Skylander said brightly, looking quite pleased with his work.

Spyro took one of the vials in his outstretched forefoot, but did so slowly, warily. After an encouraging nod from the dragon, Josh followed suit. The young human raised his vial to his mouth and hesitated, watching Spyro intently. Realising what the boy was waiting for, Spyro downed the contents of his own vial and swallowed without hesitation, seeing that he would need to openly show some trust in his fellow Magic Skylander and comrade-in-arms before Josh would dare to so much as taste the alleged hot chocolate. After several long seconds, during which the purple dragon thankfully _didn't_ turn into a crazed monster as Pop Fizz typically would upon drinking one of his own concoctions, Josh took a very small, cautious sip of his drink…

…And let a relaxed smile appear on his visage as he tasted the unmistakable and comforting flavour of warm milk and melted chocolate. Somehow, Pop Fizz had synthesised the taste of the real thing from… Well, Josh felt he'd probably be happier not knowing exactly what had gone into that which he was now drinking. He took a longer, more indulgent sip of the 'I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Hot-Chocolate' (for lack of a better name) and smiled gratefully at Pop Fizz, but the alchemist was no longer paying attention to him, having taken to gazing intently into one of the now empty beakers he had used to prepare the drinks.

"Uh-oh," the blue-furred gremlin said after a long moment.

Josh immediately tensed at that. Beside him, Spyro was suddenly alert. "Uh-oh? What d'you mean by 'Uh-oh', Pop?" the dragon demanded, trying to keep the worry out of his voice.

Pop Fizz looked up at him, a serious expression on his face. He raised a finger to point at Spyro's horns. " _That's_ what I mean by 'Uh-oh'," he elaborated simply.

Josh turned his head to look at Spyro and gasped. The dragon's curved golden horns had been replaced by the unmistakable antlers of a reindeer, complete with flecks of snow and little multi-coloured Christmas lights that glowed faintly, one of them flickering on and off.

"Oh, boy. What'd he do?" Spyro asked Josh, turning to face him. As he did so, a large, round, artificial nose of brightly glowing red appeared over the dragon's snout, the glow turning on and off like a malfunctioning lightbulb. In that moment, Josh's bewilderment and alarm at the situation were suddenly gone, the young human unable to hold back in the slightest as he burst out laughing.

"It's… It's a bit early to be celebrating the holidays, isn't it, Spyro?" The boy managed to chortle cheekily between bouts of mirth, sloshing his hot chocolate all over the floor as he sat there.

"Well, I wouldn't talk if I were you, pony boy," Spyro retorted slyly, having noticed that Josh had developed some physical abnormalities of his own. His mirth fading instantly, Josh got up and hurried to the nearby closed window, catching sight of his reflection in the glass and crying out not in horror, but in dismay. A pair of distinctly equine ears had grown out the top of his head from under his messy blonde hair, his normal ears having disappeared without a trace. Josh then felt a very faint sensation, an odd sensation, on his lower back just above his posterior and instinctively felt at the area with one hand, his fingers closing around a lengthy tail made out of horse hair, blonde to match the hair on his head.

"Aw, man!" Josh complained, pouting childishly. "I look like an Equestria Girl!"

It was Spyro and Pop Fizz's turn to burst out laughing.

"I don't even know what that is!" Pop Fizz exclaimed, his comment seeming to make the two laugh all the harder. A couple seconds later, Josh found himself joining in, the humour of the situation catching up with him once more. He laughed merrily along with the Skylanders without a care in the world, just glad to have something to laugh about, his homesickness forgotten. After a short while, a thought occurred to him and he spoke up about it:

"Hey, this'll wear off by morning, right? _Right?!"_

* * *

 **Yes, that chapter title WAS inspired by an episode of _SpongeBob SquarePants_ , before anyone asks.**

 **See you soon! (…Maybe)**


	8. N Sanity Streak

N Sanity Streak

Waves splashed against the moonlit beach of Wumpa Island, a lone figure pacing back and forth across the sand, jagged purple blade in hand/snake head. The night was beautiful, the stars in the sky twinkling brightly, a few fireflies hovering lazily over the beach, the full moon casting its lunar glow all across the island… and yet, the Imaginator would not be distracted. She had readily volunteered for guard duty and was determined to not let so much as a hermit crab get by her.

The Imaginator's purple hair glowed with blue fire, making her stand out against the tranquil atmosphere of the beach; from afar, she looked like a walking candle. She turned around, about to pace back in the opposite direction yet again, only to lower her sword arm with a sigh, moving to take a seat upon a nearby rock.

"Vigilance and determination. Such traits are crucial for an up-and-coming swordswoman like myself," she mused, turning her gaze to the water's edge. She sighed again, remembering how she had seen her reflection in the ocean's surface earlier - a dark, murky green complexion, which was, admittedly, fitting, given her ties to the Dark Element, but she was an Imaginator. Her Sensei had knowingly and actively created her in this image, birthing her from a Dark Creation Crystal in this spooky and somewhat mismatched form. Between the snake arms, bat wings, elf ears and lemur tail, she was a hodgepodge of an Imaginator, and one of a battle class that served as a stark contradiction to that of her Sensei. Throughout her short life, the Dark Knight Imaginator had told herself that this was all part of her master's plan, that there was some unspoken logic and wisdom to his actions and choices…

Then again, those actions and choices included sleeping half-naked out in the open in broad daylight, spinning like a top, scoffing down Wumpa fruit like there was no tomorrow, breaking crates just for the sake of it, scratching himself in inappropriate places and making no attempt to be discreet when belching or breaking wind.

Was it possible that there _was_ no wisdom to be found in the mind of Crash Bandicoot? Was it possible that he had created the Dark Knight Imaginator in her current form just as a lark, for the sake of fleeting amusement? Had he created her just to be some sort of… playmate?

And if that were so, then why did he give her this serious, disciplined personality? It was just another thing to drastically differentiate her from him. He was a Brawler, skilled in melee combat. She was a Knight, adept in the ways of the sword. His power was drawn from the Life Element. Her power came from the Dark Element. He was laid back and easily distracted. She was focused and alert at all times. Heck, if one were to take gender differences into account, then the duo were complete opposites in every way. So then _why_ were they master and apprentice? What was the _point_ of any of it?

The Dark Knight Imaginator got to her feet, the fangs of her snake-hand tightening around the hilt of her sword. "If vigilance and determination are the traits my Master gave me, then I shall put them to good use! Not just for him, but for the weak and the innocent! I shall serve and protect the people of this world in the name of peace, harmony and justice!" she cried, raising her sword skyward. "I may have been born from the dark, but I shall serve as a shining beacon of—!"

"Bluster and long-winded speeches!" a voice finished for her rather cheekily. The Dark Knight Imaginator spun around, brandishing her sword in the direction the voice had originated from. For a moment, she saw nothing, and then a pair of glittering green eyes not unlike her Master's became visible in the shade of the palm trees, accompanied by a sly smile. The Dark Knight lowered her weapon, recognising the cheeky grin of her Sensei's sister.

The cheeky grin of Crash Bandicoot's sister.

"Sister of the Sensei," the Dark Knight greeted rather curtly, not showing the green-eyed newcomer quite the same respect she would show Crash. The sister responded by leaping out from amongst the trees with a somersault, landing smartly before the Imaginator in a crouched pose, still grinning.

"That's me," Coco Bandicoot said as brightly she straightened up. "How've you been, Hexcalibur?"

"I never did agree to that nickname," the Dark Knight Imaginator, Hexcalibur, muttered in annoyance as she glanced Coco up and down, taking in her orange furred visage that complimented her brother's, her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, her white tank top, blue overalls and pink sneakers. Hexcalibur sheathed her sword. "Shouldn't you be at home in bed?"

"Perhaps," Coco responded nonchalantly, no longer looking at Hexcalibur, having let her gaze wander to the waves splashing against the golden sand, following the water far out to the horizon. The bandicoot girl took a step towards the water, closing her eyes and inhaling deeply, letting her breath out in a long, low _whoosh_. "The air's really crisp tonight, isn't it? That salty tang on the breeze is invigorating."

"Yes, and it was quiet out here as well. _Was_ ," Hexcalibur mused rather coldly.

"Oh, lighten up," Coco said, opening her eyes, her smile fading in response to Hexcalibur's attitude. It then quickly came back as her gaze moved past the Dark Knight Imaginator to the space behind her. "Oh, hey, Crash!"

Hexcalibur whirled around with a gasp. "Master! I…" She then trailed off when she saw that there was nobody there. The Skylander scowled as Coco burst out laughing. Her scowl turned to wide-eyed alarm when she saw movement in the darkness behind Coco. "Get down!" the Dark Knight barked, unceremoniously tackling Coco to the ground and brandishing her jagged purple blade at the figure creeping out of the bushes.

No, not creeping.

Crawling.

Crawling slowly and clumsily, as though their every move was a strained effort.

"Hey, what the—?!" Coco started in irritation, not pleased at now having her blonde hair full of sand, but her green eyes soon moved upward, looking past her own forehead as she lay sprawled there, pinned under Hexcalibur, in time to see a familiar face moving into the clarity of the moonlight, or rather, a familiar big, yellow head.

A big, yellow head covered in large, red scratch marks.

"Coco, sweet child…" Dr. Cortex managed weakly, feebly reaching out towards her with one gloved hand. "Help me… please…"

The self-proclaimed evil scientist then collapsed face-first into the sand. Hexcalibur was quick to leap up, hurry forward and turn the man over onto his back so he could breathe. Coco, meanwhile, got slowly to her feet, staring in bewildered disbelief at the weakened state of the sworn arch-nemesis of herself and her brother…

* * *

Roller Brawl leaned over the balcony of the Academy's top floor, leaning noticeably farther than anyone with any regard for their own safety ought to, and yet, despite her risk of falling, the Undead Skylander was quietly, almost lazily humming to herself.

"Oh, ya gotta be pullin' mah leg!" a familiar voice exclaimed and before Roll knew what was what, she was being forcibly dragged upright by the collar, soon whirling around to find herself face to face with Avril, the Frost Elf looking none too pleased. "Have ya no brain in that there noggin o' yours, girl? If Ah hadn't sorted ya right, Ah'd have had tuh scrape ya off the pavement in addition tuh the rest o' mah night work!"

"You know, for a Frost Elf, you sure don't know how to chillax," Roll commented casually, as though she hadn't just been practically hanging by her ankles above a dangerous drop. "I had a handle on things just now. No biggie."

Avril suppressed an irritated growl. "Ah tell ya, Roller Brawl, one o' these days, ya _are_ gonna bite off more than even a vampire can chew, and Ah, for one, won't be cryin' at the burial! Ah can see the tombstone now: 'Here lies Roller Brawl, a Skylander so stupidly reckless, she managed to die despite already bein' dead'!"

"Doubtful," Roll replied uncaringly, causing Avril's blue visage to begin turning red with rage. "Besides, it's not _my_ back I'm worried about watching," the vampire went on, casually looking at the metal claws she wore, as though she were examining the fingernails concealed beneath the weapons.

"Why do Ah even bother?" Avril asked rhetorically, sighing in resignation. She turned away, shaking her head in disapproval. "Ah just hope that Joshua lad doesn't pick up any o' your bad traits."

Avril took a step forward, about to walk away, but then she froze. She could feel an overwhelming sense of… something. It seemed to emanate from behind her.

It emanated from the Undead Skylander behind her.

Before Avril could grasp just what was happening, she felt a sudden hot breath on the back of her neck, a hot breath that chilled the Frost Elf to her core. She hadn't just stopped; she couldn't move. Her body _wouldn't_ move. Her body was frozen with fear. An unnatural fear.

A _supernatural_ fear, a sense of literally paralysing dread.

"You let _me_ worry about Josh, alright?" Roll whispered into Avril's ear, the sheer closeness of the derby vampire and the breathiness of her voice causing the Frost Elf to shiver involuntarily. Avril realised what was happening. Roller Brawl was projecting her vampiric aura over her. She was channelling her inherent Undead magic to achieve intimidation, to achieve dominance over Avril. The Frost Elf was completely at Roll's mercy. "Right now, I'd just worry about myself if I were you."

"D-Dont…" Avril pleaded, her words strained and difficult to get out, her tone ripe with fear. A second later, the overwhelming sense of power that held the Frost Elf in place dissipated as quickly as it had first occurred and Avril exhaled, realising that her breath had been caught in her throat.

"Heh. S-Sorry about that," Roll said sheepishly, giving an awkward chuckle. "I don't usually resort to enforcing my vampiric will upon others. Heck, even bad guys are more likely to be on the receiving end of my claws rather than my magic. I guess something you said must've rubbed me the wrong way and drove me to act on instinct. Sorry if I freaked you out."

Avril swallowed. Roll's words were sincere, of that the Frost Elf was sure, but that didn't make what she had just experienced any less frightening.

"Just… try not tuh be reckless or rash, alright?" the blizzard-hardened warrior managed shakily. "A-Ah only speak out of concern, that's all." On that note, Avril hurriedly jogged away, leaving Roll bewildered at herself.

"Yikes. I haven't lost control like that since…" the Undead Skylander trailed off, biting her lip. She then licked that lip, as well as her upper lip, suddenly realising that she was very, _very_ thirsty…

And _not_ for a glass of water.

* * *

 **Whoa. Talk about intrigue, am I right?**

 **And now if you'll excuse me, It's nighttime over here, and I'm feeling a little thirsty myself. Heh, heh…**

 **(shamelessly howls at the moon)**


End file.
